Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.

A mutant (D165N) of clostridial glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) in which the catalytic Asp is replaced by Asn surprisingly showed a residual 2% of wild-type activity when purified after expression in Escherichia coli at 37 degrees C. This low-level activity also displayed Michaelis constants for subst...

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Main Authors: Paradisi, F, Dean, J, Geoghegan, K, Engel, P
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2005
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author Paradisi, F
Dean, J
Geoghegan, K
Engel, P
author_facet Paradisi, F
Dean, J
Geoghegan, K
Engel, P
author_sort Paradisi, F
collection OXFORD
description A mutant (D165N) of clostridial glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) in which the catalytic Asp is replaced by Asn surprisingly showed a residual 2% of wild-type activity when purified after expression in Escherichia coli at 37 degrees C. This low-level activity also displayed Michaelis constants for substrates that were remarkably similar to those of the wild-type enzyme. Expression at 8 degrees C gave a mutant enzyme preparation 1000 times less active than the first preparation, but progressively, over 2 weeks' incubation at 37 degrees C in sealed vials, this enzyme regained 90% of the specific activity of wild type. This suggested that the mutant might undergo spontaneous deamidation. Mass spectrometric analysis of tryptic peptides derived from D165N samples treated in various ways showed (i) that the Asn is in place in D165N GDH freshly prepared at 8 degrees C; (ii) that there is a time-dependent reversion of this Asn to Asp over the 2-week incubation period; (iii) that detectable deamidation of other Asn residues, in Asn-Gly sequences, mainly occurred in sample workup rather than during the 2-week incubation; (iv) that there is no significant deamidation of other randomly chosen Asn residues in this mutant over the same period; and (v) that when the protein is denatured before incubation, no deamidation at Asn-165 is detectable. It appears that this deamidation depends on the residual catalytic machinery of the mutated GDH active site. A literature search indicates that this finding is not unique and that Asn may not be a suitable mutational replacement in the assessment of putative catalytic Asp residues by site-directed mutagenesis.
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spelling oxford-uuid:db5b74b0-d426-4356-ac2d-3a4e11db58792022-03-27T09:10:04ZSpontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:db5b74b0-d426-4356-ac2d-3a4e11db5879EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2005Paradisi, FDean, JGeoghegan, KEngel, PA mutant (D165N) of clostridial glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) in which the catalytic Asp is replaced by Asn surprisingly showed a residual 2% of wild-type activity when purified after expression in Escherichia coli at 37 degrees C. This low-level activity also displayed Michaelis constants for substrates that were remarkably similar to those of the wild-type enzyme. Expression at 8 degrees C gave a mutant enzyme preparation 1000 times less active than the first preparation, but progressively, over 2 weeks' incubation at 37 degrees C in sealed vials, this enzyme regained 90% of the specific activity of wild type. This suggested that the mutant might undergo spontaneous deamidation. Mass spectrometric analysis of tryptic peptides derived from D165N samples treated in various ways showed (i) that the Asn is in place in D165N GDH freshly prepared at 8 degrees C; (ii) that there is a time-dependent reversion of this Asn to Asp over the 2-week incubation period; (iii) that detectable deamidation of other Asn residues, in Asn-Gly sequences, mainly occurred in sample workup rather than during the 2-week incubation; (iv) that there is no significant deamidation of other randomly chosen Asn residues in this mutant over the same period; and (v) that when the protein is denatured before incubation, no deamidation at Asn-165 is detectable. It appears that this deamidation depends on the residual catalytic machinery of the mutated GDH active site. A literature search indicates that this finding is not unique and that Asn may not be a suitable mutational replacement in the assessment of putative catalytic Asp residues by site-directed mutagenesis.
spellingShingle Paradisi, F
Dean, J
Geoghegan, K
Engel, P
Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title_full Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title_fullStr Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title_full_unstemmed Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title_short Spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation: deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase.
title_sort spontaneous chemical reversion of an active site mutation deamidation of an asparagine residue replacing the catalytic aspartic acid of glutamate dehydrogenase
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AT deanj spontaneouschemicalreversionofanactivesitemutationdeamidationofanasparagineresiduereplacingthecatalyticasparticacidofglutamatedehydrogenase
AT geoghegank spontaneouschemicalreversionofanactivesitemutationdeamidationofanasparagineresiduereplacingthecatalyticasparticacidofglutamatedehydrogenase
AT engelp spontaneouschemicalreversionofanactivesitemutationdeamidationofanasparagineresiduereplacingthecatalyticasparticacidofglutamatedehydrogenase